James webstee



UNITED STAT S PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES WEBSTER, E BIRMINGHAM, COUNTY oE-wAEwIcK, ENGLAND;

METALLlCALLOY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 377,918, dated February 14, 1888.

Application filed June 8, [886. Serial No. 204,538. (No specimens.) I

To aZZ whom itmay concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES WEBSTER, a subject of the Queenof Great'Britain, residing at Birmingham, in the county of Warwick,

England, engineer,'have, invented a new and My invention relates to the compounding and manufacture of an improved metallic alloy which is better adapted than other known alloys for the production of any article of manufacture which requires a metal possessing in a high degree, as compared with known metals or alloys, any or all of the following properties: strength, tenacity, hardness, capacity for vibration, capability of taking a high polish, and non-liability to corrosion.

I wish to point out at this juncture that it is practically impossible for me to give herea complete list of all the articles at present in use or known in the arts which could be advantageously manufactured in my improved alloy; for to do so would make the specification prolix and verbose, and therefore the reverse of concise, and, as it is well known, a specification of an invention is required to be concise. Besides, if I were to give seriatim a full list of all the articles at present in use or known in the arts which could be advantageously manufactured in my improved alloy, there would necessarily be omitted therefrom some articles yet to be invented, or some application of the alloy which is not yet apparent. I therefore indicate the uses to which my invention can be put by pointing out those of its properties in respect of which it excels the alloys in use or known at the present time, said properties being,as stated above, strength, tenacity, hardness, capacity for vibration, capability of taking a high polish, and non-lia- 45 bility to corrosion. To this category I now add that this alloy is easily fusible,can be cast art of mixing metallic alloys to make and use in the ordinary method, and is readily forged and machined, so that if any person is in search of a metal which must, for his particular purpose,possess any or all of theabovementioned properties, then is the alloy'which is the subject of my invention the material he requires. In virtue of its hardness and non-liability to ;corrosion, it is well adapted for the bearings of heavy shafts, as well as for any parts of a machine which work at a high velocity and under heavy pressure. In virtue of itstenacity or toughness and strength, combined with its non-liability to corrosion,it is an excellent material for the manufacture of ma.- 6o rine propellers and for metal ship furniture generally; In virtue of its tenacity it is an excellent material for the manufacture of highclass wires, sheets, and seamless drawn tubes.

In virtue of its capacity for vibration, wires drawn from my alloy are superior for percussion-instrumentssuch as pianosto any of the wires now in use. A wire drawn from this alloy will, when it is struck, vibrate longer than any other piano-forte wire tested 7 under the same conditions. For the same rea- 1 son this alloy is a valuable metal for gongs, bells, the combs of musical boxes, and trumpets.

Its closeness of texture andhardness and consequent capacity for receiving a high polish, 7 5 coupled with its power of retaining this polish in virtue of its non-liabilityto corrosion,make my alloy exceedingly valuable as a raw material for the artistic metal-worker and manufacturer of imitation jewelry, watch-cases, and guards. In virtue of its strength, hardness, and non-liability to corrosion, it is very well adapted for the manufacture ofcooking-utensils and table-cutlery. In virtue of its strength, tenacity, fusibility, malleability, close texture, and capacity for being machinedin a machinetool-e. 9., a lathe or planing-machineit is of great utility to the mechanical engineer when the quality of the work expected from him compels him to choose the best metal which he can procure.

' In carrying my invention into effect, I prepare a preliminary alloy by melting together, according to any convenient and well-known method, the following metals in the propor tions specified. This preliminary alloy I call,

for convenience of reference, the No. 1 alloy.

Copper .200 pounds or 66.67 per cent. Tin 80 pounds or 26.67 per cent. Aluminlun 10 pounds or 3.33 per cent. Bismuth 10 pounds or 3.33 per cent.

\Vhen the alloy compounded according to the proportions specified above has been thoroughly mixed, it is cast into blocksof a convenient size for use in the preparation of the alloy which is the final product of my invention. For instance, as the proportional weight of alloy No.1 is-as specified in the next tablefour and one-half pounds in three hundred pounds, it will be convenient to cast it into blocks of four and one-half pounds each.

I next proceed to compound and melt to gether the metals forming the alloy which is the final product of my invention, and which I call No. 2 for the sake of distinguishing it from No. 1, above mentioned. The following are the several metals to be used in the proportions specified:

Copper .161 pounds or 54. 7 per cent. Nickel pounds or 23.3 per cent. Spelter 611: pounds or 20. 5 per cent. Alloy No. 1 41; pounds or 1.5 per cent.

Or,if the metals used in compounding the 1.5 per cent. of No. l alloy be set out in detail, the figures willbe as follows:

Copper ..54.7 1.0: 55.7 Nickel 23.3

Aluminium Bismuth or the like.

the proportions specified, and I prefer that they be strictly adhered to. They have been calculated so as to'make proper allowance for any of the minor losses by absorption or evaporation incidental to careful fusing.

The following are the results of an analysis of my alloy:

No. 1. No. 2. v

Copper 67 per cent. Copper o3 Tin 28 per cent. Spelter 22. 5

Bismuth 3 per cent. Nickel 22 Aluminium 2 per cent. Tin 5 Aluminium. 1 5

100 Bismuth In order that the differences between my presentinvention and other alloys known or in use at the present time may be clearly apprehended, I will take the cases of silverine, the composition of which is specified in the Metallurgical Review, vol. 1, p. 602, and of a British patent granted to me for a bismuth bronze, being No. 4,636 of A. D. 1882, September 29. I quote these two cases as illustrative of the state of the art of making alloys at the date of my application for Letters Patent for my present invention.

First, as to the differences in the respective compositions of silverine and of the alloy which is the subject of my present invention. The inventor of silverine patented three different alloys, the respective ingredients and their proportions being, before mixing, as follows:

I II. III Average.

Aluminium 5 5 33 Iron 1 1. 5 1. 25 1. 25 100.00 lfiioo 100.00 100.00

Differences calculated upon the proportion in the silverine.

Average My silverine.

Copper 75.17 55. A. diminution of 2'! per cent. Nickel 16.18 23. An increase of 40 per cent.

. 20. An increase of 470 per cent.

A diminution of per cent. A diminution of per cent.

IIO

It is evident, therefore, that the difference between average silverine and the alloy which is thesubject of my present invention is very great and that the similarity is only super- Secondly, as to the differences between theinvention of bismuth bronze described in the specification of British Letters Patent No. 4,636 of A. D. 1882, granted to me, and my present one. The two inventions resemble each other in this respect: The first part of each invention is the compounding of a pre- 7 liminary alloy, a certain proportion of which enters into the second or final alloy. In the said specification there are two preliminary alloys specified; but as the, second one of the two is more like the No. 1 alloy of the present invention than the first one, I quote said second one for the purpose of comparison. The respective percentage compositions are as follows:

TheNo. lalloy of my presentinvention differs from the preliminary alloy for the bismuth bronze in having only about half as much aluminium, about half as much bismuth, and

one-third as much tin. Moreover, there is 66.67 per cent. of copperin it-a metal which is absent from the bismuth-bronze preliminary alloy. Then as to the final alloys in the bismuth-bronze process and in the presentinvention", respectively, the differences are clearly indicated in the following table:

Difeelpces oailglu- Final alloy No. 2 8.110 a of the bisof a... y ggg gggq g g muth-bronze present inofthebismuflz process. vention. b r on Z 6 cess.

Copper 69 55.7 A diminution of 20 per cent. Spelter 21 20.5 Nickel 9 23.3 An increase of I 158 per cent. Tin... .88 .4 A diminution of per cent. Aluminium .06 .05

Bismuth .06 .05

It is evident that the differences between my improved alloy and the bismuth bronze are in point of composition substantial and not merely superficial, for, as I have pointed out above, I make no broad claim to the use of the metals which enter into the composition of my present invention, inasmuch as I am quite aware that alloys of the same metals which-I principally use are already known, and the gist of my invention does not consist in the selection of the particular metals which I make use of, but in the relative proportions in which they are alloyed.

I have already pointed out the characteristic advantages of my present invention over other alloys, and I now have to add that these characteristic advantages are directly the consequence of and depend upon the distinctive peculiarities in respect of the said relative proportions of the several metals used which I have pointedout above by way of comparison with alloys previouslyknown.

I claim A metallicalloy containingcopper, spelter, nickel, tin, aluminium, and bismuth in the following proportions by weight, viz:' copper,

53; spelter, 22.5; nickel, 22; tin, .5; aluminium and bismuth, 1.5.

In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my I hand this 27th day of May, 1886.

VVitnessesr JAMES WEBSTER.

FRAS. HY. FISHER, vTHos. COOKE, I

Clerks to R. Harding Milward, Notary Public,

Birmingham. 

